
Gass F4 5 7 



Book. 



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OUR FALLEN LEADE^^ 



EY 



REV. A. A. E. T/YLOR. 



OUR FALLEN LEADER 



A DISCOURSE 



Delitered on Thursday, June 1, 1865, in the Bridge Street 
Presbyterian Church, Georgetown, D. C. 



REV. A. A. E. TAYLOR, 



PASTOR-ELECT. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE CONGREGATION. 



PHILADELPHIA : 
JAMES S. CLAXTON, 

SUCCESSOIV TO WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN, 

No, 606 Chestnut Street. 

1865. 



SERMON 



But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. 
Luke xxiv. 21. 



The followers of Christ, above all others, should be 
most cautious in applying to merely human greatness 
those words of Scripture by which especially our divine 
Master has been described. No being who ever trod 
the earth or rode the clouds of heaven is worthy of 
comparison with Him. Neither is any earthly work of 
deliverance of such priceless worth, as for one moment 
to be likened to His spiritual redemption of His people. 

A single reflection will show you that we do not 
transgress this principle of Scripture use, by the present 
application made of the passage selected as a text. It 
appears plainly, from the study of the gospel history, 
that the disciples of Jesus never attained to the true 
apprehension of the spiritual nature of the Messiah's 
work, as a deliverance of their nation from the bondage 
of sin, until his interviews with them subsequent to the 
resurrection. Up to the time of His death, they ex- 
pected to see him set up an earthly kingdom, and 
achieve political redemption for Israel from the yoke 
of Roman bondage. 

Such was evidently the sense in which the two dis- 
ciples, on the road to Emmaus, used the word " redeem," 



as they held converse with the stranger who " drew near 
and went with them." They spoke these words sorrow- 
fully, in their grievous disappointment at the failure of 
Him in whom they had trusted, to re-establish the 
temporal throne of David, and restore unto their loved 
Israel its national rights and place of glory and power. 
They mourned a civil leader, from Avhose wise head and 
potent arm they had expected salvation from that 
national ruin which seemed so near. And with such a 
burden oppressing their hearts, they sadly exclaimed, 
" But we trusted that it had been he which should have 
redeemed Israel." 

It will, therefore, appear to be not inappropriate for 
us, under similar circumstances, to employ these same 
words in the expression of our great national disap- 
pointment and grief at the loss of a leader to whom we 
looked with so much confidence for the deliverance of 
our people. 

By the voice of the Chief Magistrate of our bereaved 
nation are we summoned to the solemn service of this 
day, as a day of humiliation and mourning in view of 
the sudden and untimely death of our late honored and 
beloved President. The religious end contemplated in 
the appointment of this day, is clearly stated in the 
proclamation under which we are convened. We are 
to "humble ourselves before Almighty God, in order 
that the bereavement may be sanctified to the nation ; 
and in order to mitigate that grief on earth which can 
only be assuaged by communion with the Father in 
heaven." The whole loyal population of this nation 
are expected to "assemble in their respective places of 
worship, there to unite in solemn service to Almighty 
God, in memory of the good man who has been re- 



moved, so that all shall be occupied at the same time, 
in contemplation of his virtue, and sorrow for his sudden 
and untimely end." 

When the chief officer of the State, and representa- 
tive head of the whole people, recognizes the hand of 
God in our public afflictions, and calls the nation to 
humiliation and prayer, it is the least that could be ex- 
pected of Christian citizens, joyfully to respond, and 
give proof that we are a commonwealth which, not only 
from its high places, but from its universal heart, recog- 
nizes Jehovah as the Supreme Ruler and Dispenser of 
all events, before whom it is incumbent upon both indi- 
viduals and States to bow and confess their sins. And it 
is all the more appropriate that we should now respond 
to this sad summons, since we have been so frequently 
before convened, in like manner, at the call of him whose 
end affords the occasion for our present convocation. 

When President Lincoln fell by the blow of an 
assassin — the enormity, and cowardice, and shame of 
whose infamous crime against civilization, and hu- 
manity, and national life, no words can properly charac- 
terize — our entire nation was stunned, and, for a 
moment, reeled in horror and dismay. So deeply was 
the hope of the whole people grounded upon him ; such 
confidence had they gained in his executive ability, by 
their experience of his justice, and wisdom, and integ- 
rity; so fully convinced were especially the religious 
portion of the community, that he was the chosen in- 
strument of God for the deliverance of the nation, that, 
in the bitterness of their grief, and in their bewilder- 
ment at the future, they could only utter the touching 
wail, "But we trusted that it had been he which 
should have redeemed Israel." 



The history of the inception and growth of this 
almost universal faith in his leadership, as appointed of 
God, is as remarkable as it is interesting. 

The American people, above almost all others who 
have ever of themselves maintained an extensive gov- 
ernment, have shown themselves most ready to accord 
their thorough confidence to the leader of their choice ; 
but most stringent in the exaction of fidelity, zeal, and 
wisdom on his part. When any leader gives indication 
of incapacity or unfaithfulness they are ready to depose 
him in an instant, though they may have previously 
yielded to him their entire aff'ections, and invested him 
with the character of a hero. So jealous and sensitive 
are they as to the proper administration and the right- 
ful execution of the public trust. 

The election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidential 
seat was the signal for the outbreak in act, of that 
treachery to the nation which was already ripe in heart. 
As this attempt to dismember the Kepublic has signally 
failed, so we are confident that history will show the 
causes which led to its origin to have been with its 
leaders ambitious, and with the masses who wildly 
followed, imaginary or delusive. 

When the newly chosen President left his quiet 
home in the West, to assume control of the State, he 
had mingled but little in the public counsels; and to 
the vast majority of the people had been previously 
unknown, except in the canvass immediately preceding 
the election. Besides, it was the first entrance of the 
party that elected him, upon a lease of national power. 
The chief principles by which his administration was 
to be controlled had not yet endured the test of politi- 
cal experience in this land, although they were deeply 



seated in the moral convictions of a large proportion of 
the loyal nation ; more deeply seated, perhaps, than all 
were then ready to confess. Against these principles, 
and nnder such circumstances, the revolting States ap- 
pealed in armed contest. 

You well know with what trepidation, and even 
dread, in a sorrowful conviction of duty to God and the 
nation, the States that stood by the constitutional com- 
pact accepted the gage of battle, and entered upon the 
unwelcome conflict. You also well understand the 
vast difficulties and embarrassments, from causes both 
of inexperience and previous infidelity of public ser- 
vants, and both at home and abroad, which surrounded 
the loyal States in this fearful crisis. All eyes were 
turned for help towards the untried man whose hands 
were now calmly laid upon the reins of government. 

It were needless for us to follow his course through 
the tedious and arduous administration which followed ; 
through days of trial, doubt, and darkness; through 
periods of ill-success at home and unfriendliness from 
abroad; through the testing of military leadership and 
the guardianship of constitutional principles ; through 
the search for true financial and political policy, and 
for wise diplomacy, and the proper means and material 
of warfare by land and by sea; through the conflict for 
the control of popular emotion and the preservation of 
it from prejudice and misdirection, by those who op- 
posed his policy; for the maintenance of the public 
spirit, and other interests of no less importance to the 
national security. 

Is it any wonder, my friends, that amidst such per- 
plexities we should find the one whom the nation held 
responsible for success in all, retiring from Jiis public 



8 

offices to seek wisdom from " Him who giveth liberally 
and upbraideth not." As he had been more than 
human not to have needed divine counsel, so he had 
been less than human not to have sought it, in such a 
position when vital interests were at stake. 

Nor need we follow him through subsequent periods, 
when the day began to break, when the national anchor 
began to hold, when the storm began to abate ; through 
increasing difficulties, until the hollow shell of con- 
spiracy was at length broken, and the last remnant of 
hopeful resistance was about to be crushed between the 
two great approaching millstones of military power. 
In the many new and varied questions of policy and 
duty which were gradually evolved in the progress of 
our victorious arms — all of them involving, to a greater 
or less degree, moral principle, all surrounded with 
difficulties which to many seemed inextricable — his 
wisdom shone forth brighter and brighter, until the 
nation came e'er long to lean upon his judgment as 
supremely wise, although having sorely feared and 
doubted it betimes, when his adversaries were not 
unfrequently they of his own household of political 
faith. Until, as event after event proved how saga- 
ciously he had unravelled their tangled perplexi- 
ties, how sagely he had discerned the true thread of 
principle, the nation came at length to accept of his 
decisions as unchallenged wisdom, and to endorse his 
acts with instant acclamation, calmly confiding in the 
result, and awaiting in assurance the day of its favor- 
able manifestation. So that never has a political leader 
stood more deeply rooted in the confidence and affec- 
tion of any people under the sun, than did Abraham 
Lincoln in the hearts of the American people at the 



hour when victory had crowned his endeavors, and the 
final battles for the preservation of the nation had been 
fought and won. This is not mere eulogy, my hearers, 
prompted by the favoritism of party, called forth by the 
glory of success, or forced to the lips by the partial 
judgment of personal grief It is the solemn and 
simple testimony of truth, to which the world stands a 
witness to-day. 

We are permitted in this connexion, also, to state 
that soon after the end of the great battles which closed 
up the conflict, a letter bearing upon this subject was 
received in this vicinity, from one of the most promi- 
ment ministers of our denomination in the late capital 
of the rebellion, who has been in warm sympathy with 
the secession movement from the very beginning. In 
this letter the writer states, as the result of his obser- 
vation, for which he possessed unusual facilities, that 
towards the close of the conflict, as the people of that 
neighboring State gradually lost confidence in their 
own political leaders, so they steadily acquired confi- 
dence in Mr. Lincoln, and were ready at the time of 
his death to submit to his terms, and trust to his truth 
and wisdom with implicit faith.* It is also understood 

* The following quotations from that letter will show that we have not 
exaggerated its expressions: — "No words can depict the grief and conster- 
nation that this foul murder has produced here. We were beginning to 
hope for speedy tranquillity, and knew that in Mr. Lincoln we had a man 
whose policy would certainly secure it ; and all classes seemed ready to 
bow, and many to welcome his authority wiih joy. We felt that in him we 
had a wise, true, and humane ruler whom we could trust. And now, in the 
mysterious providence of God, he is struck down by the hand of the assassin. 
Oh, it is unspeakably sad and fearful, and we can only gaze in silence on 
this new act of sorrow and mystery that opens up. I believe that at no 
time, for two years past, would the assassination of Davis have caused a 
hundredth part of the grief here that this has done, for he has long been 
losing the love and confidence of the people, while Mr. Lincoln was, with 



10 

that this same clergyman, on the Sabbath after the 
news of the assassination reached him, pronounced a 
warm and discriminating eulogy upon the life and 
character of the deceased. After the furious conflict of 
the past four years, this is remarkable testimony in 
deed. Let the ages to come hear it and render judg- 
ment. And when the President fell, the world beheld 
a scene such, for greatness of its kind, as it never gazed 
upon before. The millions of a mighty nation arising 
as one man from business, society, and pleasure, and 
bowing down to grieve for a President as for a father; 
thronging out from palace and hamlet, to stand in line 
and guard the avenue of his funeral procession with 
parallel walls of living mourners for more than a thou- 
sand miles; to express in one appalling outburst a 
national lamentation, which found its responsive echoes 
from every nation and people unto the ends of the 
earth, even from thrones and chairs of state; and to 
clothe throughout a whole land, from ocean to ocean, 
in city and in country, every loyal house with the sombre 
drapery of a mourning that was both sincere and deep. 

It does not require to be proved that such success in 
administration, and such a hold upon the popular heart, 
could not have been attained without mental capacities 
of a high order and deeply-seated moral principles, 
especially during such a period of popular agitation and 
conflict. Had not the nation had just cause to trust 
him before all others, we should not have seen him 
returned to his seat in the second term, with such an 

unexampled rapidity, gaining it. ******** 

Most of the people of V , I think, regarded the war as ended with Lee's 

surrender, and wanted peace, and were willing to come back on Mr. Lin- 
coln's own terms." 



11 

overwhelming voice, amidst the most determined opposi- 
tion of those whose sympathies were so foreign to his own. 

It is too soon for history to weigh the acts and mo- 
tives of Mr. Lincoln, in private and in his administra- 
tion, and to assign him without prejudice to his true 
place among men. Such men as he rise in greatness 
with succeeding years, and the posterity of those who 
have thought lightly of his worth will delight to exalt 
him to the skies. We know enough, however, of his 
character and life to be assured that the future can 
never write his name in any humble place. He must 
ever live among the mighty, good men of earth. 

Raised from the most humble and obscure position 
by the steadfast exercise of that natural force of mind 
and will which everywhere won him respect and favor, 
he preserved the simplicity of his early years until the 
latest moment of his life. He carried his natural gen- 
tleness and unassuming manners with him from his 
prairie home to the presidential chair. Elevation did 
not unduly elate, as adversity did not overwhelm him. 
He displayed in all the same tranquil, undisturbed, 
unimpassioned, hopeful, and serene character, that first 
arose before the nation's eye to pass to the mansion of 
the nation's chief Governing, his simplicity ripened 
into wisdom, his meekness became patience, his hope 
endurance, and his serenity tenacious faith in God. 
So that he sat upon the chair of state "at once a giant 
and a child." 

His judgment was singularly clear, cool, quick, and 
penetrating. His will was naturally firm and unbend- 
ing, save to the pleas of pity or mercy. To the mild 
determination of that unshaken will, as it stood stead- 
fast alike against the shock of extreme opinions from 



12 

different sides, more perhaps than to anything else, 
under God, do we owe our present prosperity. 

His sense of justice was most keen. He would not 
willingly wrong even a child or an enemy; and amidst 
hours when his overtasked nature sought and de- 
manded repose, he was found balancing the petitions 
and prayers of the suffering and distressed against the 
stern demands upon which the nation's life depended, 
seeking some possible way of escape. The widow or 
the mother in distress gained as ready access to his ear, 
and were as patiently and attentively heard in their 
pleas, as the statesman in his counsels. 

He confided in the people as thoroughly as the people 
in him, and sympathized in all their sorrows. Indeed, 
his humane spirit was full of mercy and pity towards 
all. The fearful necessities and expedients of warfare 
wrung his tender heart, and his reluctant consent was 
yielded to them only when every other plan had failed. 
He was eager for the close of the conflict, though there 
were apparently years of power before him, that he 
might relieve from their sufferings those who had been 
deluded into the commission and support of resistance 
to the national authority. So conscious w^as he of 
nothing but kindness and compassion in his own breast 
for them, that he fearlessly ventured alone into the 
midst of their conquered capital, whilst the smoke of 
battle still overhung its dismantled defences. Neither 
the grievous sorrow of defeat, nor the atrocities of 
barbarism practiced upon imprisoned, helpless, and 
dying men, appeared to elicit from him expressions of 
unholy anger, malice, wrath, or vengeance. That self- 
possession and maintenance of an undisturbed spirit, 
which it has been so ffreat a task for the Christian 



13 



people of this nation to preserve during the progress of 
the war, found their loftiest exhibition, as they endured 
their severest trial, because of his position, in him. 
Whilst his fidelity to the popular trust, and to the vital 
principles of natural and civil freedom, has been as 
evident as his desire and determination to wrong not 
even his bitterest foe. 

If there ever was danger to the State from his hands, 
it arose from his choice to suffer rather than to commit 
a wrong, and to hedge about the necessities of justice 
with the sweet clemencies of mercy. 

His integrity was unimpeachable, his honesty of pur- 
pose as evident as the frankness of his nature. His 
moral heroism was as subHme as it was fearless. And 
in him the nation finds all it desires to hand down as a 
model and living illustration of national character, and 
a specimen type and product of free representative 
government to succeeding generations. 

His was a character worthy to complete the experi- 
ment of liberty which was begun under the hand of 
Washington; so let their names be inseparably linked 
together. 

As we- look upon yon unfinished monument of a 
nation's gratitude to its founder, whose half-risen mass 
is even now not beyond the range of our vision, we can 
but reflect how fitting it was that it should remain thus 
sadly incomplete, whilst the problem of the capability 
of a free people in governing itself was still unsolved. 
But now the time has come for block after block of 
marble to rise into its place, until the perfected shaft 
shall become the admiration, as the republican princi- 
ple it represents is the bulwark, of this whole liberty- 



loving race. 



14 

The nation's capital itself is reaching perfection in 
an appropriate hour. So let the monument now begin 
anew its growth. And when the work is done, on its 
surmounting block let the grateful builders carve the 
name of him who brought to a successful issue that 
political enterprise which he whose honored name shall 
adorn its base first inaugurated. So shall the cap-stone 
respond with the notes of liberty to the foundation- 
stone^ and the whole lofty pile stand to bear perpetual 
witness to the work that has been done, and so well 
done, between the dawn of liberty under the first, and 
its attainment to the perfection of power under the 
second Washington. 

President Lincoln could scarcely have been what he 
was, except he had been first a Christian. Not that 
these beautiful characteristics make him a Christian, 
but they could scarcely have existed save as the fruits 
of a devout spirit. We rejoice, therefore, that we have 
satisfactory reason for believing that he was a sincere 
and earnest servant of the Lord, whose devout character 
steadily ripened towards the close of life. It is right 
that a Christian people should be governed by Chris- 
tian magistrates. So shall we everywhere recognize 
the Lord as our nation's God and King. 

Those who were privileged to hold spiritual inter- 
course with Mr. Lincoln repeatedly received from his 
lips assurance of his faith and personal confidence in 
the Son of God. Whilst the tone of all his proclama- 
tions, and especially of his last inaugural address, was 
such as to impress upon all men the sincerity and 
courage of his religious belief, which feared or shunned 
no public avowal. 

We rejoice that we were permitted to have such a 



15 

President. And as we say with the disciples, "We 
trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed 
Israel," so our condition is not unlike theirs in this 
other respect, that he it was indeed, who, though he 
seemed lost to us, had yet redeemed his people. 

The life of Abraham Lincoln, when justly portrayed, 
will exhibit the late rebellion in the height of its moral 
and political turpitude, since he was the representative 
of the laws and the moral principles against which it 
revolted. And it would have been more favorable to 
the rebellion to have had a less pure, true, and just 
character with which to be compared. 

The mysterious fall of the President, at the precise 
moment when the part of physical force seemed finished, 
and the influence of reason and heart was about to 
resume that authority which peace ever confers, was 
terrible in its shock, not only to the Government, but 
also to the whole people. So far as concerned the 
Goveniment, it was doubtless intended to be shown that- 
there is scarcely any violent concussion that can even 
disturb the steady and fixed movements of a free Con- 
stitution, founded on the principles of divine justice 
and right, in its power to control the thinking millions 
of its subjects. If at such a crisis it could stand such a 
test, what could it not endure'? Such a blow would 
have forced monarchies to reel from their foundations, 
and exploded an empire of tyranny into scattered and 
hopeless fragments. 

So far as the people were concerned, the lessons which 
Providence intended thereby to impress are evidently 
various. God desired us to learn that no mere man 
who ever lived was essential to the accomplishment of 
his divine purposes ; that he can work by one as well 



16 

as by another. So we are taught to rely not upon any 
single instrument or human agency, but primarily and 
substantially upon the Omnipotent E,uler who holdeth 
the heart of kings and governors in His hand, and 
turneth them as the rivers of water, whithersoever 
he will. 

But doubtless the chief lesson indicated by this great 
national affliction, was the duty which this day teaches, 
of national humility. The whole approach to success in 
this war has lain through the path of disaster and 
sorrow. The inherent tendency of a free government 
is to the self-exaltation of the people who constitute it. 
To abase this pride may have been in part the object 
of this blighting conflict itself. And now, when final 
and conclusive victory had wreathed our banners, and 
the whole people were rejoicing, perhaps too much, 
with a carnal and self-reliant joy — especially when joy 
was letting down its moral barriers, and displaying 
itself in intemperate, sensual excesses and physical 
indulgence in too many quarters — this blow fell sud- 
denly and violently upon us. "And the victory that 
day was turned into mourning unto all the people." 
This healthful sorrow tempered our joy, bowed our 
pride, steadied the national pulse and purpose, and 
brought us low before the throne of grace whence all 
our blessings flow; to which, if gratitude in joy will 
not serve to bring us, we may ever expect to be led by 
the hand of chastisement. God is the Lord who ruleth, 
and he is jealous of his prerogative, and will have it 
respected. We heard a voice saying unto us, "Be still 
and know that I am God; I will be exalted in the 
earth." 

When we attempt to condense into one distinct 



17 

lesson those inferences which are to be derived both 
from the character of the late President, and from the 
teachings of this startling providence by which he was 
sundered from us, we are deeply impressed with this 
one tliought — that it is the duty of every faithful 
citizen to bear himself meekly, patiently, quietly, with 
forbearance and brotherly love, and due submission to 
rightful and established authority. The administration 
of justice to offenders of right belongs, and may safely 
be trusted to, the organization of law and its officers. 
It belongs not to society at large. The attempt by 
society to assume it would fill the land with ceaseless 
heart-burnings and discord. We are henceforth, as a 
people, to seek for unity in heart and life throughout 
all our bounds. The work of establishing this real and 
vital union will only be embarrassed and delayed by 
continued hostility in thought, word, or act. 

More especially is it demanded of Christian people that 
they should conduct themselves with gentleness, and 
charity, and self-control. Let no untimely and needless 
word, bitter expression, or scornful look, aid in the per- 
petuation of social dissension. To bear and forbear, to 
endure and suffer, rather than to resent or challenge 
diversity of views, to stand fast and firm in principle, yet 
not to aggravate or provoke — this is Christian duty, 
this is the imitation of the life of our divine Master. 

We will fail to acquire the lesson which the life of 
our fallen chief, amidst all its trials, constantly im- 
pressed, as well as refuse to accept the teaching of this 
terrible affliction, if we do not learn thus to conduct 
ourselves. This is the task to which the past and the 
present, as well as the future, unite to bind us. Let 



18 

us apply ourselves with diligence and watchfulness to 
the complete mastery of it. 

Certain vital principles of national policy, for the 
ultimate decision of which an appeal was made to arms, 
have been definitely and permanently established in 
this highest court of war, by the result of the late 
conflict; and, being decided, the conflict has ceased. 
Of these, two^ standing out almost solely prominent, 
are to be particularly observed. 

First, it is now decided beyond further appeal, that 
the inhabitants of all our States are henceforth to live 
as one people, u^der one Constitution and one flag. 
In other words, the rights of States are to be subordi- 
nate to the rights and demands of the Union of States. 

Secondly, human bondage throughout all our national 
territory is henceforth and forever at an end. 

Now, whether any like the result or not, it is no less 
decisive and final, and it were forfeiting the character 
of law-abiding people to still oppose it. It becomes 
the evident duty of every faithful and upright citizen 
to accept the decrees of Providence, whether favorable 
or adverse to our personal preferences, and to submit 
peaceably to those decisions which cannot be reversed. 
Let all then conform themselves, submissively at least, 
if they do not so joyfully, to that state of afi'airs which 
is inevitable. Our duty as consistent Christians espe- 
cially demands this much of us. 

Without ever seeming to exult over the humbled 
foes of constitutional government and human freedom, 
we may say that, for ourselves personally, no other 
result could be grateful to our hearts, or in conformity 
with those pure civil and moral principles which we 
deem to be essential to the permanency of any govern- 



19 

ment, and its acceptability before a just and righteous 
God. During the course of this war for principle, it 
has appeared to the ministers of the gospel a,bounden 
duty, from which they dared not draw back, to instruct 
the people that fidelity to their rightful Government, 
even to the extent of the defence of it by the sword, 
was fidelity to God and to his commandments. So 
have we invariably held and taught. So would we 
expect to do again, with similar light, under a solemn 
consciousness of duty. 

But as to the future, now that civil power has 
resumed its sway, and so long as the life and morality 
of the nation appears to be no longer in danger from 
armed hostility, it will become the ministers of religion 
to remand the instruction- of this duty, in great part, to 
the law and the civil powers, as upon them rests its 
enforcement. 

So far as our own course in this respect, as the 
chosen spiritual leader of this church, may be now 
foreshadowed, it will be enough to say, that, whilst 
true in every instinct of our heart to the Government 
of our fathers, and maintaining steadfastly the duty of 
every Christian to lend it his cordial and sincere 
support, we yet trust that the occasion may never 
again arise which shall compel us, by the evident faith- 
lessness of any in its performance, to enforce this duty 
from this desk. We shall seek, by a candid, patient, 
honest bearing in word and deed, by refraining from 
the indulgence of severity, or reproach, or impatient 
condemnation, to commend ourselves to you as the 
servant of Christ, in all forbearance, meekness, gentle- 
ness, and brotherly love, setting the things immediately 
pertaining to the kingdom of God before all lesser 



^4 



20 

interests. This course we also earnestly commend to 
you all, as brethren in Christ Jesus, having a common 
inheritapce in the church of our Redeemer below, and 
one hope of glory above. Dear brethren: Let us live 
not in the past, but in the future. Let the dead past 
bury its dead, "but go thou and preach the kingdom 
of God." Let us strive to imitate tl e earnest apostle, 
and "forgetting those things vt^hica are behind, and 
reaching forth unto those things which are before, press 
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of 
God in Christ Jesus." 

These great humiliations of this war, if they serve 
no other purpose, should at least bind all the people of 
God, who recognize his hand, together before the 
throne of grace, in the unity oi' the Spirit and the bond 
of peace. 

And may the forgiving Lord pour out his Spirit of 
grace upon us, arid link us all closely in the chain of 
true and hearty Christian love ; teaching us to receive, 
'observe, and exhibit in our lives, that disposition mani- 
fested by our beloved Saviour for an example to us. 
May He again unite in one body every portion of our 
favored land, binding up all its wounds, healing its 
broken bones, and restore it speedily to that perfect 
health in every member, which shall prepare it, as a 
strong and undivided nation, for that blessed work 
which we trust he has appointed unto it, of becoming 
the messenger of grace and peace to the utmost bounds 
of the earth. So shall we be rewarded with His per- 
petual favor, and remain as a people, through His 
preserving grace, "one and indivisible," until the end 
of days. 



LB S '12 



